One more person
by sue2008
Summary: Here comes sequel to my story called One more thing. It s another one-shot covering the week at the BAU office after JJ left. Enjoy.  COMPLETE


**Disclaimer: Criminal Minds are not mine**

**A/N Inspired by the support from my reviewers (thanks, Angry Penguin;) I´ve decided to write sequel to my story called **_**One more thing**_**. It´s another one-shot covering the week at the BAU office after JJ left. Enjoy.**

If asked last week, no one of the BAU team would dare even to hope they´d able to go on without JJ. But it happened.

The Monday after she had left was terrible. It felt like the team was ripped apart and nothing ever would should able to fix it.

The Tuesday was slightly better and the Wednesday even more so. As the day went on, the team realized they were able to breath and exist without her.

But the Thursday did the trick. It was almost unimaginable, but they were still able to laugh. It was Spencer Reid who allowed his coworkers to reveal this sensation. He was getting a refill for his coffee when it happened. He tripped over his own boots. He spilled his coffee on his shirt, pants and his barely finished report as well.

First, there was nothing but deadly silence. Reid didn´t even dare to curse out loud. It felt so inappropriate to do so in the grave situation the team was in, but as the doctor was trying to save his report by waving around with the wet paper and the drops of coffee were flying all over the room, it was too much to take for everyone present. Emily tried to keep some decorum, but Derek gave up, dropped the pencil on the table and laughed. All the emotions safely stuffed inside just burst out. Nothing seemed to be able to stop the laughter and every second of it made them all feel so much better.

Rossi was lured out of his office by this unusual sound. At first, he couldn´t believe it was really laughter that was filling the office, but as he saw the doctor standing in the middle of the room hopelessly trying to save his report and the drops of coffee flying all over the room but as it seemed mostly on Emily´s white shirt, he gave up as well.

First, he just chuckled in kids-just-having-fun way, but then he realized it was comfortable to smile and he gave in to the moment as well.

But there was still one more person on the team. There was obviously something bothering the Unit Chief for the last few days. Most of them guessed it wasn´t just JJ´s absence, but that the blonde was consciously or not somehow more deeply involved in it all. No one knew about their goodbyes once they were gone.

Maybe because of it no one expected such severe reaction. Hotch tried to ignore the laughter for the first few seconds although he thought it inadequate in the team´s current situation. As the sounds outside grew more and more wild, his reaction became as spontaneous as the outburst of the laughter for the others.

"What the hell is going on here" he asked in a grave tone as he stormed out of his office. "You are making worse noise then Jack´s friends on a birthday party."

It caught them off guard. The laughter stopped immediately and was replaced by serious faces.

"Sorry" Emily reacted "we didn´t realize we were so loud…it just, last few days there wasn´t a reason to smile and it felt so good."

"Smile as much as you want on your free time and try to act with some decorum in here"

"C´mon, there´s nothing bad in innocent joke" Morgan tried to calm down the situation. He didn´t noticed Rossi´s warning look as he continued "JJ isn´t dead, she was just transferred. And she would laugh the most of all if she saw Reid´s clumsiness."

"Making fun of your coworker is completely inappropriate and JJ knew that. And you watch your mouth or you can be as easily transferred as her" and Hotch locked himself again in his office.

He never heard the young doctor muttering "I don´t mind, I smile at myself too, sometimes"

The rest started open-mouthed after their boss. Before they had chance to decide whether to start laughing again or crawl back to their work, Rossi stood up and shaking his head went to Hotch´s office.

The rest watched without a word as he knocked on the door and not waiting for answer went in. Emily felt the childish urge to sneak up to the door and put her ear to the keyhole.

"You were out of line" Rossi said boldly to his boss.

"As you are now, Dave, so don´t push your luck" Hotch answered coldly.

"It wasn´t about them making noise and it wasn´t about work, so what the hell is going on here?"

"Nothing, just go" and while answering Hotch played unwillingly with his cellphone. Rossi watched him for a while and visibly relaxed as he realized what it was all about. He sat on the guest chair in front of the desk and stretching his legs comfortably he asked.

"Have you called her yet?"

There was a quiet in the room for a while and for impartial observer it might have looked like Hotch was considering which ´her´ Rossi had in mind. But the answer didn´t need any consideration.

"I´ve tried, twice, it goes straight to voice mail and she´s not calling back" he admitted.

"She´s working, you know, she might not have the time…" Rossi stated the obvious.

"Or maybe she doesn´t want to talk to me and she´s looking for the right excuse."

Dave watched his boss/friend for a while and was estimating if he meant it seriously or was just making jokes. Sadly, he had to go with the first answer.

He stood up and rested his palms on the table and put a severe look on.

"That´s just stupid." He said slowly "You put down that damn phone and start doing something useful. If, and only IF, she doesn´t call back by the evening then you might try calling her again."

.oOo.

The Friday morning found everyone unsure about what to do. Morgan arrived to work slightly before he was due to and he wasn´t really surprised when he found Emily and Reid already in there. Together with Garcia, they were making the first morning coffee, not sure about how today was going to play out. ¨

The sound of familiar footsteps startled them a little. Well, a lot. Garcia took her cup and almost run to hide herself safely in her cave. Reid was seriously tempted to go with her, but severe looks from his coworkers kept him in place.

It didn´t take longer than just a heartbeat to realize Hotch was different person. He entered the kitchen all smile-and-shiny, leaned on the table and with honest interest started the small talk about their weekend plans.

He put milk in his coffee completely not noticing the weird silence around him. If anyone would dare to come closer, they could hear he was whispering his favorite melody.

Reid just started to believe he was going to survive this awkward morning, because Hotch took his coffee and was on his way back to his office, when Rossi arrived. He opened the door quickly, too quickly, because Hotch was just wishing everyone good day and wasn´t paying attention. The whole hell broke loose. The cup full of warm coffee flew up, made few turns and landed broken at Hotch´s feet.

Reid stopped pretending and sneaked out of the door, Emily unnoticed moved her chair so she would have a free run-away alley in case she needed it. Morgan as well made few steps towards the door. Even Rossi seemed worried as he watched Hotch checking out his usually spotless shirt now stained with coffee.

"Aaron, I´m so sorry" Dave started carefully and was bracing himself for probable and not-completely-undeserved outburst.

And the outburst came.

Just different then they all expected.

Hotch smiled. He couldn´t stop the violent waves of laughter, first at himself, then at the coffee all over the kitchen. Then he looked at scared and confused faces of Derek and Emily and he smiled even more, especially after noticing Dave´s stunned look.

It seemed like forever before he calmed down. Shaking his head as in disbelief it was him smiling he whispered excuse about getting changed and asked Dave to call someone to clean the room up. He was almost out of the room, when Rossi finally realized what was going on.

"Hey, I guess she called then?" he asked.

"Yep, we are getting dinner tonight."

"Thank God…"

**So, this is it. I´ve actually started to enjoy the stories and I´m already thinking about writing another one-shot.**


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